Gloria Lucas, founder of Nalgona Positivity Pride

Body-acceptance activist Gloria Lucas shares why she created an organization devoted to helping people of color heal from diet culture, why the traditional medical model of eating disorder recovery didn't work for her, the role of trauma in her disordered eating, how intersectional feminism helped in her healing, why the mainstream body-positive movement isn't meeting the needs of people of color and other marginalized groups, the role of historical trauma in creating and maintaining body shame, and lots more!

Gloria is the founder and director of Nalgona Positivity Pride, a xicana-indigenous body-positive project that focuses on eating disorders awareness and cultural affirmation. She is a frequent lecturer across the country covering topics such as the connection of historical trauma and disordered eating. Gloria’s work has been featured at the Huffington Post, Univision, Bitch Magazine, and The Body is not an Apology. She lives in Los Angeles, CA where she is an active entrepreneur and eating disorders support group organizer. Find her on Instagram at @nalgonapositivitypride and on Tumblr at @nalgonapride.

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We Discuss:

Gloria’s relationship with food growing up, including her experience with binge eating disorder and bulimia
The role of depression, trauma, poverty, family instability, and violence in the development of disordered eating
Eating disorders as both emotional regulation and self-punishment
The impact of hypersexualization on body image
Religion, sexuality, and shame
Feminism, diet culture, and eating disorders
The lack of representation of people of color in eating-disorder treatment and the body-positive movement
Recovery versus healing
Harm reduction and eating disorders
The limitations of the current eating-disorder-recovery model, especially for people of color
Nalgona Positivity Pride and decolonizing eating disorder treatment
The need for more people of color (POC) as treatment providers
Racism, privilege, discrimination, and the white-supremacist beauty ideal
Intersectional identity and oppression
The privilege that comes from being in a "plus-size" body versus a "fat" body that faces systemic oppression
Health trolling
The impact of family on body image and disordered eating
Food insecurity, food scarcity, and binge eating
Historical trauma, intergenerational trauma, and systemic oppression
Capitalism, mass incarceration, and current political rhetoric
The limitations of the current body-positivity movement for POC and people who don’t conform to the status quo
Bodily autonomy
Rejecting the expectation of beauty